Philippines

Despite recent economic growth, poverty has worsened in the Philippines and unequal distribution of material resources persists in this country of approximately 98 million people.

Muslims make up about 5% of the population of the Philippines and they comprise its largest minority group. Although, ethnically Filipino, they share their religious culture with the neighboring majority Muslim nations of Indonesia and Malaysia. The Muslims of the Philippines, who live primarily in the Southern and Western areas of the country, have had longstanding economic grievances regarding perceived governmental neglect and bigotry.

Social and economic conditions need to change for many across the Philippines. Many rural communities throughout the islands which constitute the Philippines have long suffered from the devastation caused by natural disasters. Because the country sits astride a typhoon belt it is repeatedly struck each year by either cyclones, landslides, active volcanoes, earthquakes or tsunamis.